


Binoculars

by torolulu



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-07
Updated: 2012-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-29 03:36:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/315378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torolulu/pseuds/torolulu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sylar thought he would never see Mohinder again. He was wrong: now he sees him more than ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Binoculars

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU in which Sylar remains in New York for a little while after the events of Season 2 rather than heading straight for California.
> 
> Italicized sections take place in the past and non-italicized sections take place in the present.

It’s difficult, now, for Sylar to believe that there was a time when he thought he’d never see Mohinder again. His memories – of leaving a cozy apartment in Brooklyn for what he was determined would be the last time, clearing the constant betrayals he’d experienced there out of his mind to make room for thoughts of his bright future; of the vindication of that decision in a misguided phone call; of walking deliberately into a future that was dependent upon the destruction of bystanders like Mohinder and the familiar girl standing next to him – were abstractions that he could no longer connect to emotionally.

In Sylar’s present, not a day goes by without seeing him.

*

 _Finally._

 _Sylar stuck a needle into his vein, a detached part of his mind curious about whether a former victim felt a similar rush when he engaged in the same activity. He knew that his own high was so much more pure – that Isaac’s drugs might have made him feel like a god for a moment but that Sylar actually was one._

 _Thinking about such a glorious kill triggered a craving in him that had been temporarily forgotten in the day’s excitement. Sylar didn’t think that he’d gone so long without taking a power since he’d first started collecting and although he’d killed recently, and although it was fun, the feeling wasn’t as satisfying without opening someone up and taking something he wanted._

 _He thought of two promises he’d made – one, already broken once, to himself upon leaving a cozy Brooklyn apartment and another to a young man on the side of some middle-of-nowhere highway – and decided he wasn’t such a bad person that he’d break a promise to a dead man._

*

Watching Mohinder sleep always reassures Sylar when he starts to regret certain decisions. If things had turned out differently, would he ever have known that Mohinder doesn’t snore but breathes deeply in his sleep – breaths that jostle the loose curls that fall in front of his face now that his hair has grown out? Under what other circumstances would he be privy to the knowledge that Mohinder sleeps in his boxers, on his left side, with the sheets bunched around his waist so that Sylar can – if he wants to – easily imagine that he’s naked underneath? In what other universe would Sylar be able to imagine that accurately, because he’s seen it?

Sylar watches the rise and fall of Mohinder’s chest, convinced that things are better this way.

*

 _It was difficult for Sylar to believe, while lying in wait in Mohinder’s apartment, that he had so recently considered the possibility of never again being able to take a power. Days of powerlessness were a distant memory and the idea of replacing true power with manipulation was a ridiculous notion for which he would never settle. He heard keys jingling and felt almost giddy with the anticipation of finally getting what he deserved._

 _Sylar kept to the shadows as Mohinder entered, not wanting to startle Maya into using her power._

 _Maya and Molly Walker entered behind him._

*

Sylar was worried when he discovered that Mohinder wanted to move out of his apartment and back to India, but he’s realized his fears were unwarranted.

Mohinder is revitalized by the change of environment. He starts working again at the University of Madras. He sleeps better. He reunites with his mother and his relatives.

Sylar sees the first genuine smile that’s graced Mohinder’s face in months and forgets what regret feels like. He wouldn’t give up the ability to witness an event of such singular beauty for anything.

Despite the distance, their relationship remains unchanged.

Sylar still sees him everyday.

*

 _It had never been Sylar’s intention to kill anyone but Maya that day._

 _Really._

 _But he couldn’t be blamed for the murder that had been accumulating in his heart ever since fate had decided to tease him by dropping power after power into his lap and removing his ability to take them, until a needle in his arm popped his heart like a balloon so the murder was in his blood and in his head and when the power began to flow he really couldn’t care anymore about intentions or boundaries or how many dead bodies he left behind._

 _If some part of Sylar’s mind wouldn’t shut up about last straws and breaking points and a connection that withstood torture and betrayal being smashed into atoms, he couldn’t hear it over the screaming._

 _Sylar walked out of the apartment with the certainty that he would never see Mohinder again._


End file.
